High School Sports: Kingsley-Pierson Girls Win Third Straight WVC Golf Tournament Championship (5/10/23)

(Sentinel photo by Allen Hamil) The Kingsley-Pierson girls golf team were the tournament champions of the Western Valley Conference when they competed in Monday’s championship meeting at the Willow Creek Golf Course in Le Mars. Team members are (from left): Abby Thompson, Jordyn Sitzmann, Reagan Vos, Coach Val Sitzmann, Kenna Haggin, Hannah Koch and Emma Sitzmann.

LE MARS – The Kingsley-Pierson girls’ golf team might consider Willow Creek Golf Course their home away from home. For the third straight year, the Panthers shot the low score in the Western Valley Conference championship tournament held on the court.

Last year’s win came as a bit of a surprise as the team hadn’t won any WVC regular season meetings and only one player returned from the 2021 tournament-winning team. There was a little more pressure this year, as the Panthers returned five of their six winning teams from last year and had won four of the five regular-season conference meetings.

“They were under some pressure today, they knew the pressure and they got over it,” said KP head coach Val Sitzmann. “This is a great group of girls.”

This group joined the 2021 team as regular season and tournament champions within the conference.

The Panthers shot a 413 over the red hole and black hole, landing eight shots under second-place OABCIG.

“The scores were a bit higher than the conference meetings, but all were slightly higher than the conference meetings. If you’re playing a course you’re not that familiar with, that might have something to do with it, but overall I can’t complain about the results here. The girls prevailed and didn’t let themselves be impressed by a bad hole in the whole round,” said coach Sitzmann.

Jordyn Sitzmann of Kingsley-Pierson was the meet’s medalist with 94 points. Sage Minnihan from West Monona was second with 96. They were the only two with scores below 100.

(Sentinel photo by Allen Hamil) Kingsley-Pierson’s Jordyn Sitzmann putts during Monday’s Western Valley Conference championship. She was the meeting’s medalist at 94.

After a bit of a shaky start, Jordyn was able to feel more comfortable as the track progressed. She started with triple bogeys on the first three holes before playing par on the fourth hole. She was then one over the next two holes and two over the last three of those nine holes when she finished with a 52.

“In the beginning my putting was too hard and my short game was just really bad,” she said. “But as I kept going I got better and better as the day went on. My short game has gotten a lot better, that really saved me in the back nine.”

She was able to shoot a much lower 42 on the second set of nine holes. This included a birdie on the par 4 black hole #3 and two even par holes.

Hannah Koch was fifth overall that day with a 101. She had the best score on the red holes with a 45. She screwed in 6th place and was even 5th on that nine. Her second nine-point total rose to 56, but she fell just a few places in the leaderboard.

Kenna Haggin shot a 107 that finished ninth overall. She finished the game with splits of 55 and 52. She had three even par holes that day.

The team’s final score was a 111 from Reagan Vos. She opened with a 53 on the front nine, which included a straight on the second par-3. She shot a 58 when she came in.

Haggin and Vos were the Nos. 5 and 6 golfers on the team’s lineup card to enter that day, but in the end their scores were used in place of the Nos. 3 and 4 golfers. Coach Sitzmann said their team picked each other up well.

“The best thing about this team is that we have different girls in the top four every time,” said coach Sitzmann. “They really are a strong team and they depend on each other. If someone isn’t shooting where they’re supposed to, someone else jumps in and takes over. How they know that on the course but they seem to know and these girls really care about each other. They embody what team means.”

Abby Thompson hit a 112 on splits of 54 and 58 for the team’s fifth result. Emma Sitzmann had the team’s sixth score with a 114 when she hit a 61 going out and a 53 coming in.

The Panthers are expected to compete in a Class 1A first round regional meet at the Aurelia Golf Course on Friday.

“I really hope that we can continue until Friday and continue to do well,” said coach Sitzmann.

Team Score: Kingsley-Pierson 413, OABCIG 421, West Monona 424, MVAOCOU 451, Woodbury Central 477.